Local Adaptation Champions Awards

The GCA Local Adaptation Champions Awards spotlight and reward innovative, exemplary, inspiring, and scalable locally led efforts that address the impacts of climate change and build effective climate resilience among the most vulnerable communities, sections of society, and individuals who are at the frontlines of the greatest existential threat faced by humankind.

2024 Award Categories

Water Security: This category recognizes local, community-based initiatives that address water-related challenges and enhance local adaptation capacity through efficient water drainage, channeling, use, or conservation. The solutions must be locally designed, accessible and tailored to the needs of the most vulnerable groups in the community, ensuring equitable management of water resources for all.

We invite applications from women-led groups, non-governmental organizations (local, national, and international), universities, research institutes, think tanks, governments, and entrepreneurship support organizations.

Food Security: This category recognizes local, community-led initiatives that support the design, mainstreaming, and adoption of climate-smart food production systems that are designed by and for smallholder producers and vulnerable communities along the supply chain. Initiatives in this category should demonstrate how they contribute to ensuring continuous, equitable and sustainable access to diverse, nutritious foods for poor, vulnerable and disadvantaged groups.

We invite applications from women-led groups, non-governmental organizations (local, national, and international), universities, research institutes, think tanks, governments, and entrepreneurship support organizations.

Urban Adaptation Solutions: This category recognizes locally led initiatives for adaptation to climate change in urban areas. Successful initiatives engage and benefit vulnerable urban neighborhoods, community leaders and city governments through collaborative design, integration into city adaptation plans, and a long-term vision to continuously increase adaptive capacity over time.

We invite applications from women-led groups, non-governmental organizations (local, national, and international), universities, research institutes, think tanks, governments, and entrepreneurship support organizations.

Local Entrepreneurship: This category recognizes local, community-based businesses that:

• Have developed or adopted adaptation solutions or technologies that address local climate-related vulnerabilities and that are accessible locally to the people or groups most vulnerable to climate change;
• Have supported local communities and governments in adaptation efforts; or
• Helped address structural inequalities faced by women, youth, children, disabled, displaced, indigenous peoples and marginalized ethnic groups that make them more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

We invite applications from micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) with core business models focused on local climate adaptation initiatives, women-led businesses, tech and non-tech enterprises, locally grown corporates or organizations promoting local climate adaptation along supply chains.

Eligibility criteria

Only applications that meet all five of the following criteria will be considered for the 2024 competition:

• The intervention is being implemented and results are demonstrable.
• The intervention addresses adaptation to climate change impact or builds resilience against climate impacts.
• The intervention aims at the most vulnerable communities, sections of society, and individuals experiencing climate impacts.
• The intervention is locally led, adhering to one or more Principles of Locally Led Adaptation.

Call for applications open from 1 July to 11 August 2024.

For more information about eligibility criteria, the selection process and more, please refer to the 2024 Applicants’ Guidebooks:

• English Guidebook
• Spanish Guidebook
• French Guidebook

Local Adaptation Champions Awards